California dreamin' in Audi R8 Spyder
The Audi R8 Spyder makes me want to move to California.
A few minutes in the convertible, sun pinking my nose, and I'm ready to trade my life in the blizzard-prone Northeast for earthquakes, fires, state bankruptcy and paparazzi.
Because the Spyder sports car starts at $161,000, I'll probably have to live in a rundown place in the Valley, but I'll still be ruling Los Angeles from the Audi's leather-bucketed throne, with the V-10 engine right behind me.
I'm a fan of the R8 coupe in both 4.2-liter V-8 and 5.2- liter V-10 guises, and was not surprised to see Audi roll out of a topless version. It's a time-honored — and bottom-line pleasing — tradition among makers of exotic cars.
What I didn't expect was that trading its metal lid for a soft top would set the rather constrained R8 free. It ditches the Hugo Boss suit and briefcase for board shorts and aviator shades. The convertible looks different, handles differently, and completely changes the perspective from inside the car.
My metallic-brown test model twinkles in the L.A. sunlight as I snap down the freeway at 85 mph, other cars ceding territory to its bright LED running lights. Then, into Beverly Hills for a latte, where I'm one of the tribe.
This R8 has the larger V-10 engine, and it's arguably more power than you need in a convertible. After all, ditching the top also means that the R8 could no longer function as a weekend racetrack car, a personal fantasy I often entertain on snowy Sundays in New York City.
In the coupe, I prefer the superfast 6-speed automatic transmission, controlled by behind-the-wheel paddles. You can shift in a tenth of a second. Yet here I've got an old-world, six-speed open-gate manual shifter. You have to negotiate the metal stick through a series of open, gaping slots large enough to drop a nickel into.
On the racetrack you lose too much time finding those gears. Yet in the convertible it's perfect: Every time you shift, there is a soft clink of metal on metal.
Caffeinated, I head for the Angeles National Forest north of the city, a place I've always imagined as primeval timberland, but which suffered a terrible fire in 2009, so I find instead spindly copses of flame-touched foliage. What it still offers are thickets of looping ridge-side roads.
The R8 pulls me relentlessly along, grabbing purchase with all four tires through tight corkscrew turns and open sweepers. The combination of all-wheel-drive, mid-engine layout, manual transmission and big engine is the perfect algorithm for a convertible.
It's not as stiff as the coupe, true, yet it feels more like motoring. The weight is ideal, and even though I'm shifting mostly between redline at third into fourth, I come nowhere near the limits of the car.
The brake and accelerator pedals are perfectly situated for blipping the gas as you downshift — a racing technique used to blend engine speeds and one of those esoteric techniques that's both pleasing and rare to get right.
There are a few things I'd change. Mostly, I wish the R8 had a "mean" button you could engage, which would open up the engine and allow it to get really throaty and wild, more like the Lamborghini Gallardo from which it is derived.
